AMA Pro Racing Mid-Ohio Friday 2012

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Josh Hayes took provisional pole position at the Mid-Ohio Sport Car Course on Friday.

Monster Energy Graves Yamaha’s Josh Hayes came out on top in Friday’s AMA Pro National Guard SuperBike qualifying session at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. The Buckeye SuperBike Weekend presented by Dunlop Tire marks Round 7 of the 2012 AMA Pro Road Racing season and Hayes maintains a commanding points lead in the premier class. Following Hayes in second was Attack Performance/Motorcycle-Superstore.com’s Steve Rapp, one of the most promising starts for the Kawasaki ZX-10 rider who has faced a number of challenges so far this season. Hayes’ teammate Josh Herrin was third-fastest, trailing Rapp by a mere 0.079 seconds.

“”I’m really quite surprised to be in the ’25s and be so close to what I qualified at last year — ‘25.3 — because it sure doesn’t feel like that riding around the racetrack,” said Hayes. “The best way I can describe it is the track feels like it’s alive underneath you and squirming and moving around. Like it’s not us moving around, it’s the track that’s moving. I have no idea. Every year we show up and have that to some extent but this year just seems incredibly worse than I remember.”

Hayes opened the Buckeye weekend with the fastest time in SuperBike Practice 1 and, true to the winning form he’s cultivated this season, maintained the front to take provisional pole position. When able to avoid mechanical issues and crashes, Rapp has been a regular top-ten finisher but has yet to place himself in position to contend for a podium. As expected, Herrin is also near the lead pace as he’s been one of the only riders on the grid to contend with Hayes out front in previous rounds.

National Guard Jordan Suzuki’s Roger Hayden edged out Yoshimura Suzuki’s Blake Young for fourth position on the timesheet and Foremost Insurance’s Larry Pegram took sixth 0.021 behind Young. Team Amsoil/Hero’s Geoff May placed seventh-fastest with Jordan Suzuki’s Ben Bostrom holding to eighth. Riders Discount Vesrah Suzuki’s Taylor Knapp ended the session in ninth and Jordan Suzuki’s Ben Bostrom rounded out the top ten.

Jason DiSalvo was fastest in Daytona SportBike qualifying on Friday at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.

Daytona SportBike

Team Latus Motors Racing’s Jason DiSalvo scored provisional pole position in AMA Pro GoPro Daytona SportBike, posting the fastest lap of the session just before a red flag was thrown that cut the qualifier short by a few minutes. M4 Suzuki’s Dane Westby held to second and Yamaha Extended Service’s Cameron Beaubier placed third. Current Daytona SportBike points leader Martin Cardenas of Geico Suzuki came in fourth with Ducshop Racing’s Jake Zemke rounding out the top five.

“It was a good session and we spent a majority of the session working on race setup. Being as how AMA Pro splits the Friday session, it makes it hard to do that and then turn in a fast lap, too,” said DiSalvo. “With a chance of some weather rolling in, we had to go ahead and make sure we put that lap in. With 13 or 14 minutes to go, we made one big suspension adjustment and we able to put in some flyers at the end.”

Beaubier and Westby came out and quickly made it to the top of the timesheet, trading the fastest lap a number of times during the session. Westby held out ahead of Beaubier by just 0.001 for the final minutes until DiSalvo bested both riders on his eighth of nine laps.

Castrol Triumph’s Dustin Dominguez outpaced the AMA Pro Motorcycle-Superstore.com SuperSport field in Friday’s qualifying session, taking first ahead of Celtic Racing’s James Rispoli by 0.696 seconds. Kneedragger.com’s Stefano Mesa was third-fastest with RoadRace Factory’s Hayden Gillim and RFC’s Ryan Kerr taking fourth and fifth respectively. Harv’s Harley-Davidson’s Travis Wyman beat out Gilliam’s RoadRace teammate Tomas Puerta for sixth and National Guard’s Corey Alexander came out of the session in eighth. EyeballNYC.com’s Eric Stump and Markbilt’s Miles Thornton held to ninth and 10th at the close of the qualifier. Current East Division points leader Jake Lewis finished outside the top ten in 11th.

Dustin Dominguez led the SuperSport field in Friday’s qualifying session at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.